As the best consolation to myself for the lost opportunities with which I have here reproached myself,--and as the best means of doing honour to the memory of Mr. Ricardo,--I shall now endeavour to spread the knowledge of what he has performed in Political Economy. To do this in the plainest and most effectual manner, I shall abstain from introducing any opinions peculiar to myself, excepting only when they may be necessary for the defence of Mr. Ricardo against objections which have obtained currency from the celebrity of their authors--or in the few cases where they may be called for by the errors (as I suppose them to be) even of Mr. Ricardo.--In using this language, I do not fear to be taxed with arrogance: we of this day stand upon the shoulders of our predecessors; and that I am able to detect any errors in Mr. Ricardo--I owe, in most instances, to Mr. Ricardo himself. X. Y. Z. EDUCATION. PLANS FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF BOYS IN LARGE NUMBERS.[33] (_April and May, 1824._) This is the work of a very ingenious man, and records the most original experiment in Education which in this country at least has been attempted since the date of those communicated by the Edgeworths. We say designedly 'in this country;' because to compare it with some continental schemes which have been only recently made known to the English public (and not fully made known even yet) would impose upon us a minute review of those schemes, which would be, _first_, disproportionate to our limits--_secondly_, out of its best situation, because it would be desirable to examine those schemes separately for the direct purpose of determining their own absolute value, and not indirectly and incidentally for the purpose of a comparison. The Madras system, again, is excluded from the comparison--not so much for the reason alleged (pp. 123-5), by the author before us--as though that system were _essentially_ different from his own in its purpose and application: the _purpose_ of the Madras system is not exclusively economy of expense, but in combination with that purpose a far greater accuracy (and therefore reality) in the knowledge communicated than could be obtained on the old systems; on this account therefore the possible _application_ of the Madras system is not simply to the education of the poor, though as yet the actual application of it may have been chiefly to them, but also to the education of the rich; and in fact it is well known that the Madras system (so far from being _essentially_ a system for the poor) has been adopted in some of the great classical schools of the kingdom.[34] The difference is more logically stated thus--that the Madras system regards singly the quality of the knowledge given, and (with a view to _that_) the mode of giving it: whereas the system, which we are going to review, does not confine its view to _man as a being capable of knowledge_, but extends it to _man as a being capable of action, moral or prudential_: